Tale of Two Airlines

[USFlyer]

http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2012/03/12/united-lists-ongoing-computer-system-problems-fixes-underway/?mod=yahoo_hs

 

[SS255]

There are lots of reports on Flyertalk of elites not getting upgraded when UA's website shows upgrade availability. UA is investigating these cases, and has come out and admitted that when reservations go out of sync, which many did with the migration and still are not fixed, it caused the system to bypass all elite upgrades and kick in the TOD (tens of dollars) cheap upgrades to non-elites, resulting in UGS and 1K members sitting in the back on slam-dunk routes.

Also, there is no way to tell if your reservation is out of sync. I have been checking my reservations every day, and all looked good. Then the other day I got a mysterious re-issue: I e-mailed my whipping boy at UA with the subject heading "WTH?". He told me that he was the one who checked my reservations when he had a few spare minutes, saw that one was out of sync, and re-issued it for me. Most people don't have a whipping boy on the inside who is looking out for them, and the out of sync issues are what cause the small problems which collectively are clogging up UA's reservation lines.

Of course these are minor things in the overall scope of a changeover, but the GS and 1K brigade is really starting to lose their patience. Most are talking about jumping ship to AA.

 

[res_me]

I looked into the UA conversion and as near as I could tell the transition went well. The kiosk/FF issues pale when compared to the lines at CLT, PHL and elsewhere. It's called Management both from a planning perspective and as things unfold.

Want to bet you don't hear any reports of lines in ORD. IAD and elsewhere tomorrow?

It did not go as well as you think...we could not even book UA flights for 2-3 days! Where did you look into this? Just wonderin...

 

[SparrowHawk]

It did not go as well as you think...we could not even book UA flights for 2-3 days! Where did you look into this? Just wonderin...

Just been reading the various travel sites. I work in IT (indirectly) and I've NEVER seen something like this convert totally clean. I'm not disputing that problems have happened, but I'm not seeing near the chatter and media attention that landed on US's door step. I knew the Res Migration to SHARES wouldn't go well at US so I actually used some miles and took a week off and went to Europe figuring if push came to shove LH could get me home. I know big coward right? I just didn't want to deal with what I knew was going to be a nightmare.

Where I think UA did a better job is in managing customer expectations as much as anything.

I'll tell you one thing, ALL of the airlines need to get away from the 1960's based technology damn quick because before to long all the people who know this stuff at a high level will be dead never mind retired.

 

[john john]

It did not go as well as you think...

March 12, 2007
Mr. Douglas Parker, Chariman & CEO
US Airways Group Inc.
111 West Rio Salada Parkway
Tempe, Arizona 85281

Dear Chairman Parker:
We are writing to express the serious concerns and frustrations coming from customer service agents – members of the Customer Service Employee Association CWA-IBT -- across the US Airways system and to urge you to take action by restoring needed staff positions and allowing our members to do what they do best: providing quality service to US Airways customers.
The effects of continued short staffing across the system – that preceded the merger with America West and US Airways have been wearing enough on US Airways agents, but the recent computer reservations system switchover has made this situation intolerable, for customers and agents.
It appears that this new reservations system was put into effect without providing agents the adequate training necessary to use the system efficiently. Reports from Association members indicate that agents were trained in the theory of the new reservation system, training that wasn't very useful in practical application.
As you are well aware, this switchover – along with the malfunctioning kiosks -- caused an enormous amount of turmoil at airports across the system and particularly along the East Coast. This resulted in agents, who take pride in their professionalism and their ability to serve US Airways customers, being unable to do so, and in many cases, being blamed by local managers for the meltdown.
You may not be aware, however, that understaffing and mandatory overtime are routine in too many airport locations. In Charlotte, for example, on a daily basis, there are 38-40 vacancies in airport customer service, with similar short staffing at Philadelphia, Boston and other locations systemwide. Union representatives have provided documentation and raised this issue with management for more than a year, with no results.
We are also concerned about reports that US Airways wants to hire temporary workers to staff the help center and for other customer service duties. As you know, there are many experienced agents on furlough or on-the-job injury status who can be called on for this work
US Airways agents are professionals who are committed to providing quality service and want the opportunity to do so. We would like to have the opportunity to further discuss ways we can work together to achieve this goal, and alleviate both current and long term problems for customer service.
Sincerely,
Larry Cohen/President, CWA ~ James P. Hoffa/General President, IBT
The meeting between the US Airways Labor Union Committee members and the members of the Labor Committee for US Airways was held on April 11, at 1:00 PM at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Phoenix Arizona.
Attending for the Company was Douglas Parker, CEO, Scott Kirby, Vice President, Bruce Lakefield, and Herbert Baum, Executive Board members for US Airways, INC.
Doug Parker started the meeting out with a short report on the performance of the Airline this quarter. He stated that the airline is looking to make a very small profit this quarter, despite the two weather related problems in February and March and the Res Migration problems experienced since the March 3rd cut over. He expressed his frustrations with the problems and customer complaints stemming from the Computer glitches and feels that many of the problems that happened at cut over are being addressed as quickly as possible and are slowly getting better according to the IT folks. Doug said he completely understands how frustrated the agents are feeling as he has been out in the field talking to many of them in the past few weeks. He did say he did not think having more staffing at the time of cut over would have alleviated the problems that the employees and customers all faced. I stated that he was wrong, that having the correct staffing would have made a world of difference for the customers as well as for the employees during this meltdown.
I attended on behalf of the CWA/IBT Association and presented the following issues to the committee and provided each of the US Airways committee members a copy via email;
I prepared this to present to you on behalf of the entire workforce, who are in essence, investors of this company with their blood, sweat and tears, yes tears, for over a month. You have seen what has been going on, this I know from the news reports; you keep expressing your concerns to the media about this huge Res migration screw up. It takes more then press and PR to fix this problem. The front line see it everyday and send a representative from each work group to these meetings to share the “real” reports from the customers and employees both. Not the “things are getting much better, sugar coated reports” from local management and regional directors.
The employees of US Airways have felt a huge loss of dignity in the last few years and especially in the last two months. Their hard work, time, and energy has been devalued so much, before, during and after bankruptcy, all groups have given up so much to make this company survive, they have lost pay, $22 an hour down to $17 at top of scale, the real value of their pensions lost, by dumping them on the PBGC who cannot pay the full rates of their earned pensions. Their benefits have been diminished; valuable vacation time with their families has also been greatly reduced.

The staffing has been an issue every time I come in here representing the front line, yet no one seems to listen. The “experts” are running the computer programs to figure out the gaps in staffing I am told. All you have to do is look around in any of the East Cities and see, the staffing is totally inadequate. You cannot put a band aid on it by asking agents from other locations to come in, put them up in hotels, (another expense which is ridiculous) and hope that the problem gets resolved.

The EO positions are not getting filled in some of the cities by the experienced agents. I have offered a suggestion to Al Hemenway in the past month, one that makes a ton of sense. Fill every other vacancy as an EO and you are still saving money, you will get experienced agents back to work to help out during this crises. Most of the West agents who were kind enough to come out and help us have told us they have never seen such awful working conditions, in PHL,CLT, MCO BUF DCA and BOS just to name a few. Most of them said they will not volunteer for another trip out East.

It is not just for the members of the CWA/IBT Association, it is for the sake of the customers and the stock holders that we come to this table to share with you our most urgent of issues and problems. We DO NOT want to see this company fail AGAIN. Believe me.

One of the hardest things lately the employee group has had to deal with is the news of the bonuses that Select executives may be getting. Who made the decision to go with this system and cut over WAY before the system was ready to handle an airline this size? HOW can someone be rewarded with making some of the worse decisions in recent years, in my opinion? A mistake is made above, the employee group bails them out each and every time, by working double shifts, not getting breaks and getting the customers anger and dissatisfaction directed at them each and everyday. The employee gets so little in return in comparison to the ones making these horrendous decisions. The profit sharing is very much skewed from our vantage point. Where does the buck stop?

We are hiring in at $8.72 an hour for this high stress job and in NC, American Express travel is luring our trained res agents away by offering them $12 to $14 an hour to start, with great benefits. In CHS we had 8 people quit in the last two weeks; we only had 29 agents working there to begin with. Now the remaining group left has to work double shifts and their days off, not by choice.

When you announced your intent to buy Delta, the statement you made was, every group would be given the higher of the pay and benefit packages between DL and US. In our current contract, we agreed to wait until 2011 for any snap backs, yet, the “current” executive group doesn't have to wait till then to be given what they believe is their fair share. The NON contract employees are getting a 3% raise from what I have read on the hub, grades 22 and below in admin salary plan and as far as I remember, they have not given up even 1/10 of what the passenger service group gave up in the past. This is another slap in the face of these dedicated employees.

There is only so far you can go with the inequalities between the Executives and the folks who really make this machine run, as best they can, as under staffed as they are. I truly believe you want to do the right thing, but admitting a huge error was made regarding the “company’s” decisions and performance during this Res migration is not enough. You need to reconsider sharing the additional potential profit sharing bonus recently announced, with the entire workforce, who has been carrying this company through most of the ups and downs.

Customer service is what makes an airline succeed, not the paint job on the plane or the ads in the seat back trays. Our Customer service as you know is in the toilet right now. I hate that my coworkers are perceived in this light by the public, they are embarrassed and depressed. Disgruntled customers are causing our agents to be disciplined because the agents don’t have the tools to do their jobs. Many have to take medication to get through the day. I am sure if you check with the EAP folks, the calls have spiked tremendously in the past month for mental health issues. The sick calls have increased and the OJI’s have as well.

Something positive needs to be done for the employee group. Not just giving them Pizza and drinks Talk is cheap, loss of our valued, experienced employees and loyal customers is not. Get the contracts settled with the other union groups and give the employees the pay and tools they deserve to make them proud again to be working for a decent company that CARES about them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The reality is, we were understaffed when we had the SABRE system, with the SHARES system, we are grossly understaffed.

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Did Doug write back?

 

[SparrowHawk]

Did Doug write back?

Nope, he spilled his PBR Tall Boy and never finished reading it.

On a less sarcastic note, Scott McCartney weighed in with this.

United Lists Ongoing Computer System Problems, Fixes Underway
By Scott McCartney

United Airlines, bedeviled by computer-system problems for more than one week after it merged its reservation system into Continental Airlines’ system, acknowledged specific problems have continued with frequent-flier accounts and upgrades for elite-level frequent fliers.

United apologized to customers in a message posted on its website Monday and said it had resolved issues such as online payment failures and messages sent to customers in error saying a reservation needs to be reissued. Those concerns added to massive phone-line waits for help and angry complaints from customers

.

MORE

So it seems to be a bit of a mixed bag. Somethings went really smoothly and some less so. One thing I will Praise UA for is their management of customers.

 

[700UW]

That letter is only FIVE years ago, lol!

You see the mighty power of the CWA, not, the letter didnt help a thing.

 

[SparrowHawk]

That letter is only FIVE years ago, lol!

You see the mighty power of the CWA, not, the letter didnt help a thing.

Yeah! I noticed the IAM hired Brinks to deliver all of the checks with raises for their members too. Frankly I'm surprised they had time to do so what with 20 some of them busy beating up rival union members in PHL!

CWA is a very formidable union if you work for Verizon or the State on NJ and therein lies the problem.

 

[john john]

You see the mighty power of the CWA, not, the letter didnt help a thing.

US Airways CEO Doug Parker Responds to Letter from the CWA/IBT Association Leaders
June 18, 2007
CWA


June 14, 2007

Dear Mr. Hoffa and Mr. Cohen:

First let me apologize for the length of time in responding to your March 12, 2007 correspondence citing your concerns over Customer Service Res migration and associated issues with training, kiosks, and airport staffing. We have all been hard at work making improvements to our operation. We have kept your local CWA/IBT representatives well informed of our progress on this front and assumed that served as being responsive to your letter. Recently one of your representatives suggested to me that I still should respond in writing, though, and I am happy to do so.

On the kiosk front, we have implemented many software changes to fix the initial problems encountered after cutover. Beyond that, we announced in April that we planned to purchase over 600 state-of-art kiosks to be deployed system wide. That rollout is now underway and should be complete by this summer. The good news is that the kiosks are now functioning well, and we're striving to make them more reliable and functional than ever before.

We have also been working on many changes to the Shares / QIK system to improve functionality including standby processing, flight close out, involuntary reroute processing, flifo, over sale processing, and others. Many of these enhancements are being driven straight from agent working teams in our airports and call centers. In addition, our Technology Group is improving the stability and reliability of the infrastructure across our network, including common use locations and remote islands in the Caribbean.

We are also addressing Customer Service staffing system wide. We announced in April that we intended to hire over 1000 new employees in our airports and we are well on track to meet that objective. We are working to actually obtain a staffing buffer above authorized levels in order to help with the heavy summer traffic.

You mentioned a concern that we hired temporary employees during the migration. I have checked with our team and they indicate that we did not hire any temporary employees. During some of the initial days where kiosk reliability was low, we did use airport agents and other employees to staff a temporary center where airports could call to obtain help in driving boarding passes, as available overtime had been exhausted. As soon as was practicable we stopped that practice and even while running, it was largely comprised of represented agents from PHX.

In summary, none of us was happy with the immediate aftermath of our reservations migration. The good news is that, thanks to our outstanding employees, we are again functioning well and taking care of our customers. We still have steps to take on this front, but we are very encouraged by the progress.

Thank you for your interest in our customers and our employees. I appreciate your feedback very much.

Sincerely,

Doug Parker

 

[res_me]

March 12, 2007
Mr. Douglas Parker, Chariman & CEO
US Airways Group Inc.
111 West Rio Salada Parkway
Tempe, Arizona 85281

Dear Chairman Parker:
We are writing to express the serious concerns and frustrations coming from customer service agents – members of the Customer Service Employee Association CWA-IBT -- across the US Airways system and to urge you to take action by restoring needed staff positions and allowing our members to do what they do best: providing quality service to US Airways customers.
The effects of continued short staffing across the system – that preceded the merger with America West and US Airways have been wearing enough on US Airways agents, but the recent computer reservations system switchover has made this situation intolerable, for customers and agents.
It appears that this new reservations system was put into effect without providing agents the adequate training necessary to use the system efficiently. Reports from Association members indicate that agents were trained in the theory of the new reservation system, training that wasn't very useful in practical application.
As you are well aware, this switchover – along with the malfunctioning kiosks -- caused an enormous amount of turmoil at airports across the system and particularly along the East Coast. This resulted in agents, who take pride in their professionalism and their ability to serve US Airways customers, being unable to do so, and in many cases, being blamed by local managers for the meltdown.
You may not be aware, however, that understaffing and mandatory overtime are routine in too many airport locations. In Charlotte, for example, on a daily basis, there are 38-40 vacancies in airport customer service, with similar short staffing at Philadelphia, Boston and other locations systemwide. Union representatives have provided documentation and raised this issue with management for more than a year, with no results.
We are also concerned about reports that US Airways wants to hire temporary workers to staff the help center and for other customer service duties. As you know, there are many experienced agents on furlough or on-the-job injury status who can be called on for this work
US Airways agents are professionals who are committed to providing quality service and want the opportunity to do so. We would like to have the opportunity to further discuss ways we can work together to achieve this goal, and alleviate both current and long term problems for customer service.
Sincerely,
Larry Cohen/President, CWA ~ James P. Hoffa/General President, IBT
The meeting between the US Airways Labor Union Committee members and the members of the Labor Committee for US Airways was held on April 11, at 1:00 PM at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Phoenix Arizona.
Attending for the Company was Douglas Parker, CEO, Scott Kirby, Vice President, Bruce Lakefield, and Herbert Baum, Executive Board members for US Airways, INC.
Doug Parker started the meeting out with a short report on the performance of the Airline this quarter. He stated that the airline is looking to make a very small profit this quarter, despite the two weather related problems in February and March and the Res Migration problems experienced since the March 3rd cut over. He expressed his frustrations with the problems and customer complaints stemming from the Computer glitches and feels that many of the problems that happened at cut over are being addressed as quickly as possible and are slowly getting better according to the IT folks. Doug said he completely understands how frustrated the agents are feeling as he has been out in the field talking to many of them in the past few weeks. He did say he did not think having more staffing at the time of cut over would have alleviated the problems that the employees and customers all faced. I stated that he was wrong, that having the correct staffing would have made a world of difference for the customers as well as for the employees during this meltdown.
I attended on behalf of the CWA/IBT Association and presented the following issues to the committee and provided each of the US Airways committee members a copy via email;
I prepared this to present to you on behalf of the entire workforce, who are in essence, investors of this company with their blood, sweat and tears, yes tears, for over a month. You have seen what has been going on, this I know from the news reports; you keep expressing your concerns to the media about this huge Res migration screw up. It takes more then press and PR to fix this problem. The front line see it everyday and send a representative from each work group to these meetings to share the “real” reports from the customers and employees both. Not the “things are getting much better, sugar coated reports” from local management and regional directors.
The employees of US Airways have felt a huge loss of dignity in the last few years and especially in the last two months. Their hard work, time, and energy has been devalued so much, before, during and after bankruptcy, all groups have given up so much to make this company survive, they have lost pay, $22 an hour down to $17 at top of scale, the real value of their pensions lost, by dumping them on the PBGC who cannot pay the full rates of their earned pensions. Their benefits have been diminished; valuable vacation time with their families has also been greatly reduced.

The staffing has been an issue every time I come in here representing the front line, yet no one seems to listen. The “experts” are running the computer programs to figure out the gaps in staffing I am told. All you have to do is look around in any of the East Cities and see, the staffing is totally inadequate. You cannot put a band aid on it by asking agents from other locations to come in, put them up in hotels, (another expense which is ridiculous) and hope that the problem gets resolved.

The EO positions are not getting filled in some of the cities by the experienced agents. I have offered a suggestion to Al Hemenway in the past month, one that makes a ton of sense. Fill every other vacancy as an EO and you are still saving money, you will get experienced agents back to work to help out during this crises. Most of the West agents who were kind enough to come out and help us have told us they have never seen such awful working conditions, in PHL,CLT, MCO BUF DCA and BOS just to name a few. Most of them said they will not volunteer for another trip out East.

It is not just for the members of the CWA/IBT Association, it is for the sake of the customers and the stock holders that we come to this table to share with you our most urgent of issues and problems. We DO NOT want to see this company fail AGAIN. Believe me.

One of the hardest things lately the employee group has had to deal with is the news of the bonuses that Select executives may be getting. Who made the decision to go with this system and cut over WAY before the system was ready to handle an airline this size? HOW can someone be rewarded with making some of the worse decisions in recent years, in my opinion? A mistake is made above, the employee group bails them out each and every time, by working double shifts, not getting breaks and getting the customers anger and dissatisfaction directed at them each and everyday. The employee gets so little in return in comparison to the ones making these horrendous decisions. The profit sharing is very much skewed from our vantage point. Where does the buck stop?

We are hiring in at $8.72 an hour for this high stress job and in NC, American Express travel is luring our trained res agents away by offering them $12 to $14 an hour to start, with great benefits. In CHS we had 8 people quit in the last two weeks; we only had 29 agents working there to begin with. Now the remaining group left has to work double shifts and their days off, not by choice.

When you announced your intent to buy Delta, the statement you made was, every group would be given the higher of the pay and benefit packages between DL and US. In our current contract, we agreed to wait until 2011 for any snap backs, yet, the “current” executive group doesn't have to wait till then to be given what they believe is their fair share. The NON contract employees are getting a 3% raise from what I have read on the hub, grades 22 and below in admin salary plan and as far as I remember, they have not given up even 1/10 of what the passenger service group gave up in the past. This is another slap in the face of these dedicated employees.

There is only so far you can go with the inequalities between the Executives and the folks who really make this machine run, as best they can, as under staffed as they are. I truly believe you want to do the right thing, but admitting a huge error was made regarding the “company’s” decisions and performance during this Res migration is not enough. You need to reconsider sharing the additional potential profit sharing bonus recently announced, with the entire workforce, who has been carrying this company through most of the ups and downs.

Customer service is what makes an airline succeed, not the paint job on the plane or the ads in the seat back trays. Our Customer service as you know is in the toilet right now. I hate that my coworkers are perceived in this light by the public, they are embarrassed and depressed. Disgruntled customers are causing our agents to be disciplined because the agents don’t have the tools to do their jobs. Many have to take medication to get through the day. I am sure if you check with the EAP folks, the calls have spiked tremendously in the past month for mental health issues. The sick calls have increased and the OJI’s have as well.

Something positive needs to be done for the employee group. Not just giving them Pizza and drinks Talk is cheap, loss of our valued, experienced employees and loyal customers is not. Get the contracts settled with the other union groups and give the employees the pay and tools they deserve to make them proud again to be working for a decent company that CARES about them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The reality is, we were understaffed when we had the SABRE system, with the SHARES system, we are grossly understaffed.

What is your point?

 

[UPNAWAY]

Go over to flyertalk and read the united board and see how well everyone thinks the cut-over went.

 

[SS255]

Go over to flyertalk and read the united board and see how well everyone thinks the cut-over went.

A poster on Flyertalk even had his handle switched from I_Hate_US_Airways to I_Fly_US_Airways!

Things are definitely getting better at UA, but it's now been over a month, and they're still not good! I have had a few problems myself, but nothing like what I have read about on Flyertalk.

A lot of the complaints are upgrade-related, with 1K's reporting very low upgrade percentages on routes they regularly fly, vs. nearly 100% upgrade percentages pre-cutover. Tomorrow I'm on an LAX-EWR flight which is currently showing F booked full, and an upgrade list of 25, and I'm #10.......seems a bit odd to have 9 GS's & 1K's on higher fare classes ahead of me, and only 14 Platinums, Golds, Silvers and non-revs combined below me, and the list will likely get much longer between now and tomorrow morning as people check in. Still, my upgrade percentage on this route was abysmal as a Platinum when that was the highest level, so it's just business as usual for me.

Of course, the prevailing sentiment on the US forum on Flyertalk is that they don't want UA's disgruntled elites switching to US, because then their upgrades will get harder.

 

[john john]

What is your point?

US SHARES/QIK SUX